“Jumpers need a lot of cervical mobility to jump the big jumps. They need to telescope the head over the jump and have the flexibility to move their head and neck wherever they want while they are jumping.”
notes one of her favorite jumpers has a short little neck. “But we deal with discomfort in it consistently because she tries so hard,” she adds. “It’s not that she can’t do it, but a longer neck makes the job easier. At the lower levels, 3’3” or below, they don’t need their neck to jump. They can survive on limb muscles alone.” The mantra is similar for a dressage horse. Ideally, you
want a neck a little longer than average to allow more range of motion, a relatively high neck set and a three-finger distance between the jaw bone and the first vertebra so that the two bones do not come in contact when the horse flexes. However, she notes this depends on the level of work. “You can be much more forgiving if you’re only going to Third Level,” Dr. Schlachter remarks. In the past 10 to 15 years, the neck has gotten greater
scrutiny from the veterinary community, in part thanks to the introduction of digital x-ray technology. Previously, shooting cervical x-rays was not the easiest exercise. “It was hard to learn to do these, especially in the field,” she says. “Also, we didn’t think the neck had as much of an effect.
We were taught in school that 90 percent of the problems were in the legs. Then when we went out into the field we found people had problems outside the legs, and we went to the axial skeleton,” she adds. Dr. Rombach agrees. “When I started out, neck pain
wasn’t acknowledged,” she says. Neck function has become an important focus in
prepurchase exams. And there are often surprises. For example, you might expect a hunter, who travels with a lower, longer, seemingly neutral neck position, would natu- rally build a topline. But that’s not always so. “You see hunters and equitation horses at the low levels
with really poor backs,” Dr. Schlachter admits. “They don’t need to bend their necks right and left. They get around completely on their limbs, and on flexion and extension of the neck. I’ve seen some of the best hunters with severely arthritic necks that can’t turn right or left and have very little muscle under the saddle, but they are big enough and athletic enough to jump three feet using their lumbosacral joint and shoulders.” “The stiffness and lack of mobility makes them easier
for the amateur to ride,” she continues. “Straightness isn’t a concern. The rider just has to think about getting to and over the jumps. The upper-level rider can ride horses that are like worms because that rider can correct the movement faster. If I’m looking at a 12-year-old horse in
Example of a grand prix jumper given the freedom to use his neck to manage this Liverpool at HITS Ocala.
a pre-purchase exam for an amateur rider, I’m okay with significant back and neck stiffness. If I’m looking at that age horse as an upper level jumper or dressage horse, I’m not okay with that stiffness because the jumper needs its neck to balance and the dressage horse needs to be flexible.”
Pains in the Neck
Neck pain in a horse can be significant, in part because the neck is so mobile, but also because each cervical joint is so large that its inflammation affects a large area. The back, on the other hand, has much smaller joints, with each protect- ing the other. They are also less mobile and more protected by muscle. Of course, a horse can have a problem in the back, but it’s less likely to cause the level of expressed discomfort that neck issues do. Signs of neck pain include jumping “flat,” taking down
a rail with the front leg, bolting or bucking when asked for collection, reluctance to take different head and neck posi- tions, tossing of the head, refusing to go forward and show- ing a decrease in the normal range of motion. (The latter may also be due to injury, scaring or tightening of a liga- ment.) People may mistakenly refer to the neck being “out” and in need of chiropractic or spinal manipulation. This is a misnomer because the joints are not misaligned. Instead, because of adjacent muscle tension, they have a restricted range of motion. A horse with a sore neck might also appear lame in a
forelimb. “We rarely see a true lameness related to a neck problem. It’s more of a performance problem. Try to pick up something when you have neck pain. You don’t have strength in the limb. Because the muscle belly of the forearm is closer to the neck, the pain and inflammation in the neck
Warmbloods Today 21
Ed Haas
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